I'm looking 55 right in the face, and there are times now that I find myself reflecting on my life, and my upbringing. Then I take a look at the way things are now, and all I can say is...
What Happened?
What happened to the America I grew up in? When did it change so much? When did we become so enamoured of the European/Socialistic way of life? When did we become more caring about how other countries viewed us rather than standing strong and resolute as a great nation? When did the populace become so weak as to allow our rights to be taken away? When did we allow government to dictate to us, rather than being our servant? When did we allow our children to become a generation of coddled, entitled, undisciplined miscreants unable and unwilling to accept responsibility for their actions? When did we become so rude and crass as to viciously attack others whose opinions varied from our own?
What Happened?
A few years ago, in one of my books, I coined a slightly-profane term to describe people of my age group and older; people that can remember a different time in America. A time when we were proud to BE Americans. As children, we could ride our bikes in our neighborhoods (without helmets, knee pads, etc) and have no worries of being abducted or molested, because neighbors looked out for one another. We had manners. We had respect for our elders. We said 'Please' and 'Thank you.' We paid attention in school because we knew that if we didn't, there would be dire consequences.
We attended church without shame, and we said Grace before meals. We respected differences of opinion. We knew our neighbors. We practiced charity at home FIRST. We supported our brave troops in distant lands. We punished those who committed crimes and respected the rights of the victims. We were strong. We were the United States of America.
What happened? What changed? When did we decide to go against the principals that our great nation was founded upon? Why do criminals have more rights than the victims? Why are non-citizen enemy combatants allowed to face trial under laws that are only for American citizens? Why are the nutcases allowed to commit heinous crimes and receive light sentences because they are deemed 'not responsible for their actions?' Why do we stand idly by and allow our rights to be taken away, little by little, by out-of-touch 'Rock Stars' that have been elected based on style rather than substance?
What Happened?
We took a 'feel good' approach to raising our children. No longer could we discipline them for fear of being accused of 'abuse.' Rather, we gave them 'Time out', and allowed TV and video games to be their primary sources of learning societal 'values.' We took God out of the schools for fear that someone might be offended. We restricted the authority of teachers to provide discipline when needed. We began caring more about the views of other countries and dumping billions of OUR tax dollars into aid to nations that have corrupt governments and then do things to place our brave men and women serving there in danger.
What Happened?
We take all aspects of the media as truth, despite the fact that much of it is Op/Ed disguised as 'objective', and swoon at the ideology beamed into our homes each evening, or on the 24-hour 'News' services. We accept ALL media bias as 'truth', rather than questioning it. We celebrate celebrity. We worship technology, intertwining our lives in it. We know more about the Kardashians and the contestants on 'Dancing With the Stars' than we do about our next door neighbors. We care more about answering texts during mealtime than we do about talking to one another. We blame guns for violence, rather than the disturbed individuals that initiate the act. We desire to take away the rights of the law-abiding, rather than move toward stricter laws and punishment designed to curb violence by criminals.
What Happened?
We listen to fear-mongering and 'Chicken Little' views spouted out by our 'leaders' and take it in as fact without researching the truths behind the issues (which is odd, because we research everything from washing machines to MP-3 Players). We discipline students for refusing to say the pledge of allegiance for OTHER COUNTRIES, yet see our own Pledge removed from schools all over the nation, for fear it might 'offend.' We've made 'Diversity', one of the building blocks of our nation, where it now stands separate, rather than coming together to form the whole.
What Happened?
America has changed, and for people of my age group, this change seemed to have occurred overnight, without warning. Perhaps it's because we allowed ourselves to become too soft, too out-of-touch with the direction our country was moving toward. We stopped getting involved. We stopped going to the polls to cast our vote, thinking "It doesn't matter." We became too comfortable in our lives. We (wrongly) believed that our nation would continue to hold the values it was founded upon.
Our country is still the greatest nation on earth, but in order for it to remain so, we have to get back in touch with the values and principals it was founded upon. We need to quit being lazy and comfortable. We need to speak out. We need to stand up for our belief system. For if we don't, a few years from now, people in other countries will be asking:
"Whatever happened to the United States of America?"
"Oh, it's a part of the EU now. China's using it for their strategic military bases."
Sic vis Pacem, Parabellum,
J. Wiley Dumas
If you honestly think the home land departement supplies ammo to the NYPD or any other state or local police you are sadly misinformed my friend.
Jacob, you pull out the Liberal Playbook and accuse Peter of being a GOP member ("of the Limbaugh mindset") simply because he criticizes things as they presently are. Why do you automatically come to this conclusion? Peter may just agree with you, as I do, that the GOP'rs have contributed to the now fascist (that's exactly what it is as Mussolini defined it) relationship between government and corporations and banks. But, don't fall into the Left-Right paradigm trap like the Dems and the Repubs do. While you seem to be able to see through it, as evidence by your insight to crony capitalism, you stepped into its trap by accusing just the GOP when it's obvous that BOTH parties are guilty and BOTH parties are corrupt. I see lots of Democratic party members (as well as Republicans) getting rich in the Senate and the House from insider trading don't you? Our friend Rosa seems to have made quite the small fortune the last few years up there in Washington hasn't she?. You see, the answer lies with neither two parties, they've more than had their chance to fix things and instead have made it worse. We haven't gotten to the mess just because of one party or the other, they've both fence us pigs in largely a result of our own green and short-sidedness. Everybody just loves something for nothing.
And should we be reading "greed" in your post in place of "green" ? If so, I could agree that the factor of collective greed, most successfully achieved by many in the upper economic echelon (ok, there's an SAT word for you), is a big factor. But how would you encourage the form of greed that is motivating from the form that is debilitating to the economic interests of all?
The problem really is that both parties are two heads of the same serpent and that serpent's name is called STATISM or the belief that big government is always better and can solve anything you can throw at it. Boy, is this not true! Government gets about everything it does wrong... but I digress. Until the majority of Dems and Repubs need to realize that supporting (either party) BIG GOVERNMENT means less freedom and a lower standard of living, nothing will ever change, ever. When you talk about "common ground" that sounds like the typical collectivist code word I've heard a million times. There is no "common ground" and never will be except for FREEDOM. And, if you don't believe in freedom, then it's an ANYTHING GOES SOCIETY. It seems we are headed in that direction. P.S. I give the markets and the banks just a few months before they come a crashing down...
You make no sense. Honestly, you said Freedom is KEY and that the opposite is anything goes. BUT you have defined Freedom as pretty much NOT seeking to find where your joint interests lie with your neighbors, which means anything goes FOR YOU. You describe a society where the bully rules, where there is no room for open debate, where there is no concept of any mutual interest. I know what your role is here. You love to bait and chide, you love to zig and zag in a demonstration of, I don't have the right word - but it's something akin to nasty, snarky, gutter level ranting that is just a waste of time. I realize you or your namesake is all over Patch. It's too bad that your style is the lowest common denominator (or did you skip math along with a bunch of other schooling.)
http://m.youtube.com/#/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=QPKKQnijnsM&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Ffeature%3Dplayer_embedded%26v%3DQPKKQnijnsM
and while you're all busy flinging insults, grammar corrections, defending yourselves, keeping everyone divided and so forth, i'll go around back and steal your country, piece by piece, a bit at a time, make deals that are just barely legal, sell products with questionable value, safety and function. . i'll make friends with any number of no good, dirty down, foreigners who will buy my favors for cheap, sell me their slave labor created goods for cheap so i can resell them at close to wholesale, and put the local workers here out into the street. i'll even call it something like "I'm helping out all those poor strife ridden people being battered by their nasty underhanded militant leaders!" i'll even make some money selling them some cheap weapons so they can 'rise up' and gain hold of their 'god given freedom' and have rights like we do, (soon to be revised)
That is correct, freedom is an uncompromising principle that needs to be applied to all, especially your neighbors and yourself. That is specifically why I used the word INALIENABLE. It means that freedom to life, liberty and property are rights that cannot be separated from a person as long as he doesn't threaten or take away another's right to the same things. Collectivists believe just the opposite. Collectivists are no friend to freedom, in fact they believe in a slave-state where the rights of the individual are subordinated to group will and group think. Jim G made this clear, as I addressed above, and you've made this clear. In short, you are no friend to freedom in any way shape or form and would more likely be happy with another form of government which is probably why you support candidates who want to "fundamentally transform America."
No one, no group be they unelected or elected majority or otherwise, has any right to take these rights away from any individual as long as this individual is not denying anyone or threatening anyone of their identical natural rights. This is the whole purpose of the D.O.I, The Constitution and and the Bill of Rights, to protect these rights and this concept from the tyranny of any group or majority. Natural rights are a NO COMPROMISE principle. Either you believe in freedom or you don't. It's like choosing between food and poison, or freedom and slavery, they are mutually exclusive. Unfortunately, most people today support collectivism and don't support freedom. They don't realize it, maybe due to cognitive dissonance, but in doing so they support slavery. They don't understand that taxation is theft. They don't understand that killing with drones is immoral. They don't appreciate that the bill of rights exists to protect the unpopular minority. They don't understand that the policies and politicians they support are the enemy of freedom. They are the enemy of freedom.
"It is possible, I suppose, to imagine an extraordinary circumstance in which it would be necessary and appropriate under the Constitution and applicable laws of the United States for the President to authorize the military to use lethal force within the territory of the United States.” Still think we're free? Where is the outrage from the Democrats or Republicans (besides Rand Paul)? The only reason this is accepted is the idea that because the majority supports it, it must be ok. This is yet another, and natural extension of collectivism where the ends always justify the means, ANY means. This logic can be used to justify anything and was used to justify slavery IN THIS COUNTRY and the democide of Native Americans, IN THIS COUNTRY. This is the true nature of the politics, policies, and progress of collectivism. If you don't believe in inalienable natural rights, then you believe that the ends justify the means, then you believe in collectivism, then you believe in slavery, then you don't really believe in anything at all except an "anything goes" society. http://security.blogs.cnn.com/2013/03/05/holder-drone-strike-against-americans-in-the-u-s-possible/ http://s24.postimage.org/4v3ssk8lh/Obama_Believes_In_Murder_Rand_Paul_Drones.png